Gunslinger Girl

So yeah, I clicked this randomly and didn't expect it to be that great. Youtube makes us do strange things. I'm glad this time that I found a rather good series then. The first season is only 13 episodes, and is credited as being very very true to the Italian setting in which the series takes place in. Also, the accuracy regarding weapons, ammo, sounds, and gunfire are all done expertly. There is a second season, but animation quality is much reduced, lacking of the immaculate detail of the first, however stays a bit truer to the story and has faster pacing. More on that later. Also, the manga is quite good, and has very good character development, and great plot.


This trailer isn't the best for the series as it makes it out to be primarily another trashy addition to the "girls with guns" genre. Taking a stance very similar to Noir, there are times where things run very smoothly. At times you can see how budget effected both seasons with either still images and a shaky cam effect, or reusing animation clips. If you can forgive the duplication of clips, then this is fine. Personally I really enjoyed the slow pace of the first season. While action is intense when it does happen, it is not the main focus of the series. For the majority of the first season it is entirely back story on each character and how they came to work for the agency.


Having been in some way or the other, been abused or having been tragically discarded, each of the young girls are terminally ill until they are picked up by a government agency which takes them, gives them cyborg implants, slight brainwashing, and military training to be deadly assassins. What struck me about this series was how personal it actually got for each character. Taking ample time to ensure each one was looked over in detail. Animation quality is amazing, flows well, and voice actors hit their cue. The real story is not so much the action and shoot 'em up idea, but more the relationships between the cyborgs (who live together in sort of a very private college) and their "handlers", or male supervisors. What also should be noted is the constant battle of deciding to increase the girl's deadliness and consistency with further cybernetic enhancements, but at the increased detrimental mentality of the patients such as memory loss.


I wish it had a less negatively charged name, and that it had been able to continue a little farther so that plot could have actually developed, but the idea is still interesting none the less. Well done, high quality, and short enough to easily watch in a week, or two days. The second season has more action and plot, but has considerably less quality or city detail.
I also really like the theme song.